Team Building

For many people, a great sense of wellbeing is derived from feeling part of a community.

At school this year you'll be considering what it means to be part of a community and how we can become active, valued members.

​Amongst the qualities common to many successful communities are the ability to collaborate, communicate respectfully and work as a team. That's what this page is about. Here we'll explore team-building games and activities that will give us the opportunity to develop our skills. They are listed below (with more coming soon) so that you can share them with your family at home too. Have fun!

Activity 1: Moving MountainsCreativity and problem solving skills are necessary for this game. It also requires the group to cooperate and move together.1. As a class/group stand side by side in a line, feet hip-width apart, forming a 'mountain range'. Each foot must touch the foot of the person on either side.2. The group has to walk across the room without anyone separating their feet from their partner’s.3. If the group comes apart, begin again.​4. Can you cooperate successfully and respectfully as a team in order to 'move mountains'?

Activity 2: Knot a problemThis activity requires patience, communication, some critical thinking and a little flexibility. Literally.​1. Start by standing in a tight group with everyone facing in toward the centre.​2. Each person should reach out with both hands and grab the hands of 2 different people.​3. When everyone has linked hands, begin the game - your challenge is to unravel the knot you have created, without releasing the hands of the people around you.​4. You are finished when your whole group is standing in one, or more, closed circles.​How quickly can you unravel your knot, and more importantly, can you do it in a patient, respectful manner?

Activity 3: Hoola-Hoop HoopA simple game, but with the right team dynamics it can be fun to work together to beat your best times.​1. Start by standing in a circle with your group, with everyone holding the hands of the people to their left and right.​2. One person in the group should now step out of the circle for a moment to pick up a hoola-hoop and place it over their arm before stepping back into the circle and taking the hands of the people beside them.​3. When the team is ready, start by trying to pass the hoola-hoop around the circle from linked arm to linked arm until it arrives back at the person who started the movement.​How long did it take you? Can you better the time while remaining respectful and encouraging of each other?

Activity 4: Modern Musical ChairsThis game is played just like the traditional Musical Chairs, but no one is ever out of the game.1. Select a team member to be the DJ. They will choose when to start and stop the music during this game.2. Arrange one chair for every player in your group into two lines, back to back, then remove one chair. Ask the group to form a loop around the chairs.​3. When the DJ begins playing the music, the group should dance around the chairs. When the music stops each player then stops dancing and attempts to find a chair to sit on.​4. In this game, the last person standing, without a chair, is not out, but instead they must select another player and sit on their lap.​5. The DJ then starts the music again, everyone stands and starts dancing, another chair is removed, and the game continues.​6. The game ends with the whole group sitting on one person's knee - though you may not want to make it yours :)

Activity 5: Musical HoopsThis game is also a little like Musical Chairs, but the chairs are replaced with Hoola-Hoops which the team must stand inside.

Activity 6: Roll Marble RollA game to test your patience.1. Organise your group into teams of 3 to 5.​2. Each player in each group should be given a piece of bamboo (30cm approximately) cut in half lengthways. A cardboard tube or roll of paper could also be used.​3. Choose a start and finish line for the challenge, and arrange the groups around the start line. The finish line should be further away than the last person in the team.​4. Play begins with the first person in each team placing the marble into their bamboo and tilting it slightly so that the marble rolls to the next person in their team.​5. When a player has the marble they may not move their feet or attempt to get closer to the finish line.6. The object is to try to move the marble from the start line to the finish line without dropping or touching it with anything other than the bamboo tube that it is rolling in. 7. In order for that to happen, when a player has passed the marble on they will need to race around to the end of their team's line to receive and pass the marble on again.​8. If the marble is dropped, the team must start again.​9. If your team would like to introduce a competitive element, this activity can be done against the clock or in a race against other teams.